When leaves begin to fall, temperatures drop and days become shorter, it can only mean autumn is on its way. No matter how hot the summer has been, the next season of the year will soon be upon us with home comforts, bronzed woodland hues and a pumpkin or two.

The rate of suicide in the UK has hit a 16-year high after surging in the past year following half a decade of decline, new figures show.Data from the Office for Nationals Statistics (ONS) reveal 6,507 suicides were registered last year, marking a 12 per cent rise on the previous year and the highest rate since 2002.

A teenager has been left blind and deaf after living off a diet of chips, crisps and sausages.The youngster’s family, from Bristol, realised something was seriously wrong when he began to lose his hearing at the age of 14.

Mental health services are “putting women at risk” by failing to ask them about their experience of domestic abuse, a new report has found.The study, carried out by Agenda, a charity which campaigns for women and girls at risk, found more than a third of NHS mental health trusts are failing to ask women about domestic abuse in spite of recommended guidelines.Campaigners argue it is especially important mental health services ask about domestic abuse given the high rates of violence and abuse suffered by those who access them. Some 38 per cent of women who have a mental health problem have experienced domestic abuse.The report found there is a postcode lottery in the support mental health services are providing to survivors – with one trust saying they asked just three per cent of patients about domestic abuse.This is at direct loggerheads with National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) guidelines which specifically stipulate everyone should be asked.The findings – based on Freedom of Information requests – show that more than a third of NHS mental health trusts that responded (42 of 58) have no policy on “routine enquiry” about domestic violence and abuse.Chlo, a domestic abuse survivor who now works for a domestic violence charity, was a teenager when she first started to experience such abuse but failed to receive the help she needed.She said: “I was in mental health services when it started, but no one talked to me about my relationship or picked up the warning signs.“It was police that first suggested what I was experiencing was domestic abuse. It hadn’t even occurred to me that’s what it was until then, I didn’t know about emotional abuse or coercive control. After that, I was referred to victim support and eventually, he was convicted.“I know that for other women experiencing abuse, it doesn’t always happen like that. The peer research showed that despite everything women are resilient and still try to engage with services, but often it’s the services who are ‘hard to reach’ or difficult to engage with, not the women themselves.”Another survivor said: “No one even bothered, even when I went to hospital when my tooth got knocked out, even then they never even bothered to refer you.”The report comes as charities, practitioners and other leading experts call for the Domestic Abuse Bill to ensure all public services ask about domestic violence.Agenda is calling for the government to amend the landmark legislation, which was introduced to parliament last month, to put a duty on all public authorities to make sure staff across the public sector are making trained enquiries into domestic abuse. This must include funding for training for public sector workers, they said.Jemima Olchawski, chief executive of Agenda, said: “Women who have experienced domestic abuse come into contact with a wide range of services – both while they are facing abuse and in the years that follow.“Whether it’s a local GP, job centre or mental health service, staff across our public services should be trained to ask about domestic abuse and act appropriately. If not, we are putting women at risk. A change in the law is needed to make sure we’re not missing opportunities to help.”The latest figures show that out of an estimated two million victims of domestic abuse in the last year, some 1.3 million were women. Research shows 85 per cent of survivors sought help five times on average from professionals in the year before they got effective help to stop the abuse, four out of five victims never call the police, but many will visit their GP as a result of the abuse they are suffering.Sophie Corlett, of mental health charity Mind, said: “A large proportion of women and girls coming into contact with mental health services either have experienced or are experiencing, abuse. Domestic abuse can significantly increase the likelihood of developing both common mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression and severe and enduring mental health problems such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.“A thorough understanding of a woman’s experience of trauma can hugely improve the quality of mental healthcare that they receive and avoid services inadvertently re-traumatising them. Women must be asked the right questions and properly supported by those charged with their care.”Baroness Hilary Armstrong, chair of the National Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence, said she had heard from women across the country about the ”devastating impact” of domestic abuse.“For far too many, the legacy that trauma leaves is poor mental health, problems with substance use, homelessness, or a criminal record,” she said. “Women told me that services let them down. Time and again the signs of abuse were not picked up by professionals, and too often women were bounced around or even turned away from services.”The majority (70 per cent) of victims of domestic violence deaths are female. Every week in the UK, two women are murdered by a partner or ex-partner.In 2013-14, 93 per cent of defendants in domestic violence court cases were male and 84 per cent of victims were female.

Health campaigners are urging the government to introduce a new “calorie tax” to tackle childhood obesity, diabetes and cancer.A levy on companies producing processed food with high levels of fat and sugar would encourage them to create more nutritional snacks, according to campaign groups Action on Sugar and Action on Salt.Their call for further tariffs, which is backed by the Liberal Democrats, comes after Boris Johnson vowed during the Tory leadership campaign to freeze so-called “sin taxes”, which include levies on alcohol, tobacco and soft drinks.The existing sugar tax has been widely praised by doctors and health experts but campaigners want to go further by targeting sweet, fatty foods such as chocolate confectionery, ice creams, puddings, chocolate spreads and milk-based drinks.Katharine Jenner, campaign director for Action on Sugar and Action on Salt, said: “Manufacturers are simply not doing enough. If the Government is really committed to helping the less well-off, they need to tackle the food industry and a feasibility study needs to be undertaken without delay.“An ‘excess calorie levy’ would encourage manufacturers to improve the nutritional quality of their unhealthy foods and, most importantly, tackle the thousands who suffer the consequences of a poor diet, leading to obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cancer.”The tax on sugar in soft drinks is said to have taken 90 million kilos of sugar out of the nation’s diet since it was introduced in April 2018. Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London, and chairman of Action on Sugar and Action on Salt, said it was imperative that the tax continued.“The UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy has been remarkable and unique in that it allows for significant product reformulation by manufacturers in order to avoid paying the levy,” he said.“This has already resulted in a much bigger reduction of sugar content of drinks in the UK than originally anticipated, as well as ring-fencing £340 million of income directly from manufacturers, not the public, to spend on improving children’s health.“Additionally, the same could be achieved in creating a levy to reduce excess calories, but we need a firm commitment from HM Treasury and the Department of Health and Social Care to make this a reality and to implement a robust evaluation system to fill in the evidence gaps.“This levy should be invested back in a much more comprehensive approach to prevent obesity in both children and adults.”Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Judith Jolly said she supported calls for a government levy on companies producing food with excessive calories.“With rising rates of obesity for children, which leads to higher rates of health problems in the future such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers, more needs to be done to improve the health outcomes for our children.“Manufacturers should be doing more to reduce excessive levels of calories in unhealthy food. Instead of holding them to account however, Boris Johnson is happy for companies to keep earning profits on products with hidden and addictive sugar at the expense of children’s health. Liberal Democrats demand better.”The Department of Health and Social Care said in a statement there were “no plans to introduce a calorie levy”.“We are already reducing exposure to fatty and sugary foods, and are now consulting on further plans to offer clear labelling and more support for individuals to manage their weight,” a spokesperson added.Details of its review of the tax on sugar in soft drinks are “still being worked out”, according to the department, and it remains unclear whether this will be in addition to the expert review funded by the National Institute for Health Research.Last month it published a green paper consultation document containing proposals to ban the sale of energy drinks to under-16s and extend the sugar tax to milkshakes.The issue has divided Conservative ministers. When Liz Truss, a prominent Johnson supporter, claimed that scrapping the tax would “help Britain’s poorest”, health minister Caroline Dineage responded with the word “bollocks”. Former public health minister Steve Brine vowed to rebel against any attempt to abolish the levy. Professor MacGregor said it was “scandal” that Mr Johnson was questioning the effectiveness of taxes on food and drinks products.However the Food and Drink Federation, which represents the food industry, claimed taxes were far less effective than other measures such as portion control and product reformulation.Tim Rycroft, FDF chief operating officer said: “At the moment the industry is focused on trying to prevent food shortages and rising food prices in the case of a no-deal Brexit.“The industry is working hard to implement what has already been asked of them in the three Childhood Obesity Plans that have been published in just three years.“There is no evidence that additional food taxes can change consumer behaviours over the long-term. Food and drink companies should focus efforts where they can have the maximum impact, instead of managing the impact of wrong-headed legislation.”Additional reporting by Press Association

It is a decade since Delia Smith scandalised the nation when her ‘How to Cheat’ series recommended - horror of horrors - frozen mashed potato. Now Nadiya Hussain is risking the same fate by getting her roast potatoes from a tin.